Parashat Va-Yeshev & Chanukah 2009 -- Our Inner Light

Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook teaches:

Everyone must know and understand that within us burns a candle and no one’s candle is identical with the candle of another and there is no human being without a candle. So everyone must know and understand that one is obligated to work hard to reveal the light of one’s candle in the public realm for the benefit of the many. One needs to ignite one’s candle and make of it a great torch to enlighten the whole world.

During our TBS Religious School Family Chanukah Program, we talked at length about the importance of sharing one’s inner light, especially during Chanukah. As you know, Chanukah begins this year on the night of December 21, which also happens to be the longest night of the year. During Chanukah, which falls during the darkest time of the year, it is our responsibility to shed light! We are taught, “pirsum ha’nes,” we are taught to publicize or share the miracle of Chanukah by placing chanukiot in the windows of our homes. In this way, people who walk or drive by our windows will learn of the miracle of Chanukah.

Let us allow ourselves to be challenged this Chanukah. It is not enough for us only to display our chanukiot and believe that we have fulfilled the mitzvah of pirsum ha’nes in the fullest sense. I believe that, along with the flames of our chanukiot, we have a moral responsibility to share the light that each one of us has within us. HaRav Kook teaches, “One needs to ignite one’s candle and make of it a great torch to enlighten the whole world.” Our world certainly needs our light!

This week’s Torah portion is Va-Yeshev. In it, we learn of Joseph’s failed attempt to share his inner light with is brothers. Joseph, youthful and self-involved, tells his brothers about his dreams, in which he imagines himself as a binding sheaf in the field, standing upright, with his brothers’ sheaves bowing low to him. Joseph’s brothers are offended by this dream. They conspire to kill him and then, with so-called mercy, throw him into a pit and sell him as a slave to Midianite traders, instead.

What does the intersection of these ideas have to teach us? What does our imperative to share our Chanukah lights have in common with a Torah story about boastfulness and its bitter end? The link, I believe, comes with the intention. On Chanukah, we are not instructed to share our light for our own gain or betterment, as Joseph sought to share his light. No, we are asked to share our lights for the betterment of the world.

We share our lights for the betterment of our world when we engage in the three fundamental acts of Jewish life: Torah, Avodah, G’milut Chasadim, or study, prayer, and acts of loving kindness. On this Chanukah, I pray that we will all find time for each of these. May our own lights be made brighter and may our small flames merge together to create a great light over the entire world.